NPS Digs Up Shrubs in Dupont Circle to Help Purge Rat Burrows

If Dupont Circle park looks a little less green these days, it’s not just you.

Workers hired by the National Park Service spent the morning and afternoon yesterday digging up rows of pyracantha shrubs in the circle. The plant removal work is part of an ongoing effort to help purge rodents from the park, said NPS spokesman Mike Litterst.

“With the shrubs removed, it will be easier to treat the rat burrows this winter, then the shrubs will be replaced in the spring with a variety that is less appealing to rats,” Litterst said.

So far, the rat abatement effort seems to be working, he added.

“In the first month of our agreement with [the D.C. Department of Health] to assist in treating national park sites, they report that the number of burrows at Dupont Circle went from 150 on October 1 to just 20 on October 29,” Litterst said. “Hopefully, between the D.C. Health efforts and the removal of the shrubs, area residents should be noticing a difference.”